Growing on Instagram (Part I)
Anyone interested in growing their Instagram account? I am!
I want to share the books, comics, games, and illustrations I’m working on with as many people as possible. That’s why I’ve started testing out free trials from 16 different services providers over the coming months. I’ve had some experience in marketing over the years, and I find demographics and other other statistical data absolutely fascinating.
Be sure to subscribe, then read on to learn more about growth services and how I’ll be testing out different providers.
[image error] Screenshot of my account, taken the day I started my research
Why Use a Growth Service?
For myself, I want people to see the pictures, comics, and stories that I’m sharing. I want other people to get involved in my work, to participate in it, and for us to have an active conversation. (My 2 most recent books, Let’s Make Comics, and my self-published maze comic, Fantasy Quest, both depend on the reader to complete parts of the books in order for them to work properly. These are stories that we tell together—and that same level of involvement is what I’m after in my Instagram posts.)
That being said, I would much rather spend my time writing and drawing than dedicating hours each day toward reaching out to other users on Instagram and trying to drive traffic to my account. For me, I’m in the storytelling business for the long haul, so I want to find a way to continue to grow my account without taking much time away from the stories I’m working on.
This is where Instagram growth services come in.
[image error] Photo by Illustoria
What Is an Instagram Growth Service? What do They Provide?
Instagram growth services are companies, software, or individuals who offer any number of a variety of tools, methods, tactics, and support toward growing your Instagram account.
Here are the options I’ve seen for implementing growth services:
Do It Yourself. There is plenty of information available online on how to grow your Instagram following on your own. If you can afford the time and mental energy required for sifting through misinformation and what’s applicable to your own needs, then this could be a great option for you.Instagram Courses. There are legitimate experts who know what does and does not work on Instagram, and many have information that can help you in growing your own account. Finding these webinars, lectures, and online classes aren’t difficult, but I would suggest looking into what exactly they are offering, how they are delivering, and what customers have experienced via the service. (Keep in mind that many courses are based on offering information that you still have to implement yourself.)Individual Service Providers. This option is all about handing over your account to your IG-savvy friend (I’m looking at you, Alex), or hiring someone from Fiverr to handle your growth efforts. The short-term cost is often lower than options 2 and 4, but the success of a growth campaign is almost completely dependent on the individual’s abilities.Growth Company. If you’ve ever performed an internet search for “growing [your] Instagram” or something like that, then the top several results were probably paid ads from Instagram growth companies. Although there are plenty of individually-owned and operated companies functioning as those in option 3 do, there are small-, medium-, and large-sized companies with anywhere from a handful of employees to hundreds of employees, all working toward helping individuals and companies increase their growth on Instagram.
Some services employ the use of a rigorously automated follow/unfollow algorithm (or bot). Other services offer customers the option to buy likes and comments from other users (though there’s no guarantee that the “users” liking and commenting on your posts are actual users and not just bots themselves—possibly even created by the initial service provider). Still other services include automatic direct messaging new followers, tracking specific hashtags and/or geotags, automatic views of other users’ stories, AI that learn and improve from their application of tasks on your behalf, account managers (and management teams) that offer strategies on how to grow your account, and on, and on.
I should mention that the vast majority of these services are automated, leaving the customer free (for a price) to live their life, while lines of code complete their tasks.
After the effectiveness of a given growth service, my favorite part of the user end is any analytical data provided to me. This information can offer insights into how users are finding me through hashtags, other accounts, the Explore page, Stories, geotags, media type, etc. Depending on the service provider, I might even be able to learn something about the gender, age group, and country connected with my new followers.
If you and I can try out services like these and learn the above information about people we don’t know, then it really makes one wonder what kind of information major corporations like Google and Facebook (who owns Instagram) have access to.
[image error] Illustration by Jess Smart Smiley
My Criteria for Testing IG Growth Services
I keep using the word “growth”, but haven’t really outlined what kind of “growth” I’m talking about. By “growth”, I mean increasing the number of followers on my account, as well as improved and increased engagement (remember: I’m all about participation!).
For this experiment, I will only be using free trials, and I’ll be looking for the following:
Effectiveness: Did the provider deliver on the services offered? (Was their guarantee of “at least 50 real followers a day” met? Did I have access to the information they said I’d have? Did I run into any problems in using their service or in regular use of my Instagram account?) Knowing the provider followed through on what they said is going to build my trust in them and their services going forward.Information / Analytics Provided: It’s not enough for me to see that something worked; I want to have some insight into how and why it worked, and how it could have worked differently or possibly better. Was I given access to meaningful information that I can continue using in growing my account? (Knowing that 78% of followers gained over the last week found me via a certain hashtag is going to be very useful going forward, as would knowing that 57% of my followers are 25-35 year-old women.)Customer Service: Including account managers and/or assistance teams. Because I have specific goals I’m trying to achieve in growing my account, it’s important for me to have access to some kind of customer service where I can get clarification, or help in fixing issues, or get information to help me in understanding how and why things happened a certain way. Ease of Use: Again, I’m outsourcing my account’s marketing because I’d rather spend my time creating new books, games, comics, and stories. This experiment is going to take enough time away from my projects, but I’m hoping that my experience will be helpful for you in growing your own Instagram account, and that I can find a trustworthy, practical, helpful, and easy-to-use service provider for growing my account.Financial Cost: How much does the service cost? Are the services worth the expense?
I’ll be rating each category from 0 (poor) to 5 (excellent). This will allow each service provider a potential of up to 25 points.
[image error] Each category rated from 0 (poor) to 5 (excellent)
Obstacles / My Growth Over the Past 16 Months
In the interest of full transparency, I’m going to share some information about my growth over the past 16 months, as well as my current status on Instagram in a separate post (subscribe here, so you don’t miss it).
I should mention that I’ve been experiencing some serious health issues for the past year-and-a-half, which have increased significantly in recent months, rendering me unable to write or draw for days at a time. It might sometimes take me a week or 2 to create a post for a 3-day trial, for example, but I’m hoping to account for all of my experiences here.
I will also mention that I briefly used the growth services of Jumper Media last year and had a mostly favorable experience. I’ve also used the services of Rapid Grow this year and have had a good experience with them.
[image error] Animation by Jess Smart Smiley
IG Growth Services I’ll be Testing
Listed below are the providers I’ll be exploring via their free trials. (New service providers will be added here as I come across them.)
Social Captain Insta Vast Instant Dash Falcon Social Gram Flare Instazood Explod Social Upleap Ingramer Big Bangram Kanji Rocket Social Sprout Social Combin Stim Social Instato
[image error] Books by Jess Smart Smiley
Have You Used an Instagram Growth Service?
Did you have a good experience? Share your thoughts in the comments section and throw in a link to the service provider you used. (If they offer a free trial and don’t have a terrible reputation, then I’ll add them to my list!)
Join Me in My Quest for the Best IG Growth Services Available
I’ll be writing over the next few months about my experiences as they happen, and I’ll be sharing as much information as I think appropriate, so as to be as helpful as possible.
While I’ll be posting about each trial as it happens, I plan to collect all my posts into a single PDF in the end and making it available via my email list, which you can sign up for here.
Let’s figure out this whole Instagram thing together!
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